Note: Early in August 2022, I sent my student loan proposal to a few politicians. The only one who sent a reply was Sen. Angus King. He did not comment on my specific proposal, but wrote about the issue in some depth. If you wrote to him about student loans, you probably received the same letter from him. Here is my reply to his letter.

Thank you for your thoughtful letter about student loans and college costs. And thank you for the attention you have given and the initiatives you have taken to tackle the complex issues.

You are rightly concerned that any solution be equitable to past and future student borrowers, and to students (and families) who have paid the costs themselves, often at great sacrifice. My proposal - to make all students loans, past, present, and future, interest free - meets this challenge not perfectly, but pretty well. It does not cancel student debt, but does cancel capitalized interest.

Refunding all payments made beyond covering the initial principal will be extremely expensive, but will lift all students who have made or been making payments out of dire circumstances into places where they can unleash their creativity to the benefit of us all. Just ask any what they will do with the money. What an investment in the future of our country!

Eliminating means testing will greatly simplify administering student loans, and will be cost effective in the long run. And for every rich person who borrows money interest-free to keep their money available for investing or luxurious living, there will be thousands who will be able to go to college without jumping through FAFSA hoops, and much better able to keep their student debt manageable.

No, the debt will not simply disappear. But it will all be capitalized interest either paid back or forgiven, and never to be incurred again. It will be paid by taxpayers, a just solution if the tax code is reformed. The wealthy will pay equitable taxes on their investment income!

And if the DOJ continues digging into student loan lending practices, it could be that many of the lenders’ demands to be paid their capitalized interest will evaporate.

Yes, interest-free student loans could tempt colleges to raise their rates. It seems to me that the problem is not how much money the colleges bring in, but what they do with it. Having worked briefly as an adjunct instructor, I’m concerned about colleges exploiting adjunct labor and and not investing in faculty development. Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act may provide the opportunity to tweak how colleges qualify to receive funds from Pell grants or Department of Education student loans.

Thank you again for the careful and thorough study you put into your service as our Senator!